Ma Renaissance

Members Area My Training Journal
61

[ul]
[li]Tempo
[/li]
8 x (45 seconds of mini slide lunges r and left, 45 seconds mountain
climbers, 45 seconds of rows right and left with a light db, 45 seconds of
medball solo seated chops.)

The mountain climbers KILLED me. I was very tired after this circuit.

[li]Pull-ups 10 x 8 reps with 3 minutes rest (push-ups inbetween for recovery purposes)
[/li]

After the 4th set I couldn’t get all 8 and after the 6th I couldn’t get more than 6.5.

[li] Shrugs 3 x 8 heavy
[/li]-90lb dbs

[li]Hurdle mobility 14 or 15 x 5 hurdles every mode possible.
[/li]

Originally was supposed to be 10 x 5, but I felt great doing it and it made my hips FEEL GOOD doing it, so I kept it up a little bit.
[/ul]

Ankle felt good doing this, feel it a little bit right now, but not to a significant degree. Ball of foot felt good. Mountain climbers were hard as hell, as were the pull-ups after the tempo. The hurdle mobility felt great. I feel I really benefit from this with my flexibility (or lack thereof) in my hips.

Day went well, although the weather was shitty at best (sleet, rain, tiny bits of snow, and very gloomy–you get the picture).

62

Davan, I’m sorry about the sleet and snow, please keep it up there away from us!!

Can you explain a little about your hurdle mobility drills? Is this mainly for the hip flexors and is this something that should be done during a gpp?

63

Not for the faint at heart

[ul]
[li]Single arm dumbbell snatches 6 x 15 (odds left, evens right)
[/li]-45lbs x 15
-50lbs x 5 x 15

[li]Squats 4 x 8 reps deep rest 1 min (light 185lbs)
[/li]My first time squatting without just the bar in months. It was tiring, but not too bad. I felt it a lot in my hip flexors for some reason. I just need to get back into it.

[li]Iso squats 4 x 5 with 4 second pause at mid (parallel) rest 3 minutes per
[/li]set
-135lbs each set
[li] Bulgarian Squats 6 sets of 15 (tempo slow; 3x each leg for 6 total) rest 2 minutes between sets
[/li]Tough, but very doable. More tiring than anything really. Done with 95lb BB.

[li]Medball Circuit
[/li]5 rounds of six movements x 20 reps
(600 total throws)
Tough, but I felt better after doing it, even though I was dirty as hell. I took a rest between each time through, but generally below 20 seconds (time to tally and refocus) with one time resting 30 seconds.

[li]Back Hypers 3 x 8
[/li]-60lb DB x 1
-50lbs DB x 2
Heavy was a relative term here. I completed all reps with the 60lb db, but felt I may cramp and was just having a tough time with it, so I lowered the weight to something that was still challenging, but allowed good form.

[/ul]
I must admit, I ate half a slice of pizza today (actually, right after the medball throw circuit because someone had some). I tossed the other half a way once I realized what I was doing lol. I will update more tonight and answer your question, Heatwave. Overall good workout that felt great (although a tad tiring).

64

Napped it for a little over 3 hours. Lots of homework to do now. Great! I feel exhausted right now, but stuff must be done.

It’s a great form of low intensity exercise. It works the adductors, hip flexors, and many more muscles groups in the area with a form of dynamic stretching sort of and generally just improving mobility and hip flexibility in all areas. If you look back a page or two, you can see some example circuits. Generally it is going between 5-10 hurdles doing various sorts of walks. An example might be this:

Alternating front leg x 10 hurdles (walking over)
Left leg only / right leg only in front x 10 hurdles
Walking sideways left / right x 10 hurdles
Walking under then over alternating x 10 hurdles (5 under 42" and 5 over 36"). Can be done with left starting or right starting.
With only 1 hurdle available, in a fluid motion that has no stuttering, under then back over (left under, right back over or vice versa).

Variations could be done holding a medicine ball or changing the tempo that it is done, the density, volume, heights, and more.

65

Today:

[ul]
[li]Incline Bench 3 x 6 Rest 5mins
[/li]-145lbs at high incline

[li]Standing Shoulder Press (barbell) rest 3 minutes 4 x 6
[/li]
-115
-115
-125
-115

[li]Seated Shoulder press (DB) rest 90 sec 8 x 10
[/li]-40lb DBs
-40lb DBs
-30lb DBs for the rest

[li] Dips 4 x 12 easy rest 3 min
[/li]-Easy

[li]Chair dips 3 x 20 rest 2 min
[/li]
Did it with a slower tempo and for a stretch.

[/ul]

Going to watch an open heart surgery tomorrow. Should be fun! I’ll update this more later. Workout went well.

Any tips on improving quad flexibility?

66

Forgot to mention,
VERY sore in the lower body this morning(although it is lessening), some in my biceps, and some in my traps. The traps and biceps are not really sore any longer, but my legs (esp posterior chain and quads) still are.

67

[ul]
[li]Single arm dumbbell snatches 4 x 6 each arm
[/li]-60lb db

[li]Light Squats 3 x 10
[/li]-135lbs
-155lbs
-185lbs

[li]Squats 4 x 5
[/li]-255lbs
-265lbs for the rest

This was difficult as I feel I had poor form under the heavy loads, which is expected since it is the first time over 185lbs in over 3 months. Strength wise, it was not so hard, but I certainly struggled on the end reps because of my form (getting into poor positions, etc.). I think I will improve greatly next session.

[li]Walking lunges 4 x 20 (20 each leg for 40 total)
[/li]Low rest

[li]Single leg squats with slow tempo 3 x 10 each leg
[/li]
Tough, but felt good in the hams.

[li]OHB Med Ball Throws 3 x 10
[/li]

[li]Box Jumps 3 x 10
[/li]Meant to be done with a 36" box, but I couldn’t find anything less than 40" or greater than 24". I am going to work with stacking the boxes next week so I can get this height right.

Jumps felt good, but I felt slightly lacking explosively.
[/ul]

Tons of stress lately with EA apps due. My left hip flexor was really tight and I felt it on each squat, so I am going to have to work that out. Life is good otherwise and I am looking forward to getting all of this application crap behind me. If I can get accepted to one of my two EA schools by December 1 (UChicago and Georgetown), I am going to be having a nice, relaxing 2nd semester to say the least. :slight_smile:

68

I just want to comment on my viewing of the open heart surgery Friday…

Surgeons and doctors in general deserve every dime they earn. I watched a team of two surgeons and an resident perform this very long surgery. They patient was 77 and was considered the highest risk paitent (50/50 for life or death during the surgery). These guys, the surgeons, are so incredibly focused for over 5 hours. I and most of the others I was with were incredibly interested, but the fact is that during 5 hours you slip a bit in foucs. The fact that these men (or women, but in this case men) could work this well for so long really proved to me that these guys earn everything they can get. There were problems though. The patient had previously had esophogus (sp) cancer and his was removed. This caused his stomach to be almost directly behind his heart, which caused some problems in the different procedures they were trying to do. The fact he had a large amount of adipose on his heart did not help his cause.

On a side note, Friday was the last football game for the school team. It was first round of the playoffs and they played their asses off. They lost in the end 7-0 with tons of dropped passes (3 td passes it kids in the chest or facemask). It was depressing to see it take place, but they put everything they had into it. They played Woodland Hills, a team that probably has nearly the most current NFL players of any highschool in the US (I believe it is at 5 or 6 right now with the likes of Jason Taylor and others included).

69

Too bad about your team’s season being over. For us, the playoffs don’t start for another two weeks here in California. Maybe it’s cuz of the weather so they start the season earlier where you guys are. I assume you want to be surgeon, which is why you were watching the surgery, am I correct?

70

I just really enjoy medicine. I’ll be honest with you, I want to make the green. I don’t have a lot of money saved up for college, so I don’t think medschool is for me at this point. I am considering investment banking and consulting along with international business. Of course, that is dependent on whether or not I get into a college that will put me into the position to get into those fields in the first place ;). What are you looking at doing?

It sucked the season ended the way it did, but I was kind of detached from it seeing as I sat the entire season out.

71

Actually, I have no defined career in mind (really bad when the colleges ask you that on the application, I just put entrepreneur). I’m basically looking to earn a degree from a college that will get me somewhere, a marketable degree if you will, and I want to major in something useful. Thus, my main choices are Stanford, Berkeley, USC, and Duke, and I want to major in business. After that, I’m hoping that my college years will help guide me along as to what career I want to pursue.

Are you running track this year, or playing some other sport?

72

[ul]
[li]360 Medball throws high density
[/li]Chest Passes
Shot Put (L/R)
Side Throws (L/R)
Underhand toss for height–these were done pretty explosively

[li]Tempo Circuit 4x Through
[/li]

[li]400 Hurdle Mobility Reps
[/li]Very high density (I think the longest rest for 30 seconds between sets, which were generally 20+ reps.

[li] Stretching
[/li]-AIS and standard static stretching
[/ul]

More tomorrow.

73

[ul]
[li]Pull-ups Max -2 x 4
[/li]-15
-11
-10
-10

[li]Pull-up Negatives 3 x 8
[/li]This got really messed up after the 2nd set and I had about a 30-45 minute break inbetween.

[li]Strict DB Rows 3 x 6
[/li]-70lbs

Low rest because of lack of time

[li]EZ Bar Curls 3 x 18
[/li]25 on each side

[li]800+ prone reps
[/li]Low rest and probably closer to 900-1000 reps

[/ul]

I received a call from the University of Chicago track/XC coach about recruitment in the middle of my workout! Obviously, I stopped to chat for a bit ;). I think the conversation went well–we talked for a while about a wide variety of topics from academics to track to Aristotle and George Stigler and more. He went to University of Wisconsin-L and actually was the guy who recruited Andrew Rock, so it gave us something to talk about. I am hoping he can help me out a bit and we will see what happens. I have not been this excited in months and I am interested to see what happens. He told me to expect a call soon from either him or his assistant coach about recruitment and their program. Am I recruited? Not sure. Will I be getting some help? HOPE SO!

74

No real warm-up:
[ul]
[li]6 x 10 Box Jumps
[/li]-3 x 10 with short approach (few steps) ~44" (possibly a tad higher) box
-3 x 10 straight standing jumps onto box (not the 44" box)

[li]BB Snatches 3 x 10 2 mins rest
[/li]-95lbs for all

[li]Power cleans 3 x 5
[/li]-165lbs for all sets. Relatively easy (didn’t even double bend, just straight up), but wanted to not push it too hard my first time

[li]Squats w/ 3 sec pause at bottom 4 x 5
[/li]225lbs
@ parallel or below for all sets–not too difficult, but the pause certainly does not make it easy

[li]Standard Hypers 3 x 6 w/ bar
[/li]-bar x 2
-bar + 10lbs x 1

[li]Various stretching at home
[/li]
[/ul]

Nice workout today–it feels good to have no school! My flexibility is so bad, but it is going to be slowly improving hopefully.

75

[ul]
[li]3 x 20 x 50m Marches/Skips
[/li]-Rest was a little shortened for interest of time (who would have though 20 x 50m of A marches with walkback could take nearly 45 minutes!). The 2nd set was almost entirely skips as was the 3rd set. I definitely felt it in the ball of my foot. Not a sharp pain, but I could tell I have some time until it is absolutely pain/awkward feeling free. It felt good though to get something other than walking and up plyos done with my foot. I am happy with the starting point and we’ll see what happens after this.

[li]5 x 10 OHB MedBall Throws w/ 2mins between sets
[/li]These felt good, although I was pretty tired/sweatty.

[li]4 x 20 push-ups fast and with complete ROM 90 secs rest
[/li]Easy

[li]DB Bench Moderate/Heavy
[/li]This is where things get interesting. No warm-up, just straight to the DBs.
First set: 70’s – hard, but got through them
2nd and 3rd: 60’s – dropped the weight so my bench could be more productive. It was definitely work, but not near maximal like the first set (I probably could have used 75’s for one set if I really pushed it).

[li]Cluster Bench 8 x 2 @ 90% INTENDED
[/li]215 x 2
215 x 1 rep that was way too slow
195 x 5

Pathetic. What the fk… So I have done 3 x 5 @ 205 relatively easily not long ago and now 215 was HARD. I was grinding out the reps way too slowly (slow enough that I had to tell the spotter I had it to finish most all but one rep so he wouldn’t pick it up prematurely), which is why I dropped the weight to 195, which was much easier, obviously. I have only done two push sessions in two weeks, with only one having flat bench and it was of higher reps (8), so maybe this is an explanation. To be honest, I am not concerned on the whole because I am improving plenty in other areas (general conditioning, bf%, flexibility/mobility, lower body strength to an extent, pulling strength). It is just frustrating to not be making progress everywhere all the time, but I must have patience.

[li]Weighted Dips 3 x 6
[/li]BW + 45lbs
BW + 60lbs
BW + 60lbs

Felt good. Not especially difficult and it was a big booster after the last exercise.

[li] Seated BW Press 3 x 8
[/li]Only 90 seconds rest due to time
40lbs x 2
35lbs x 1

[li]800 Core Reps
[/li]I did some extra on top in case there were any miscounts. I enjoy the core work as I feel it is much much easier now than it was previously.
[/ul]

Stretched a good amount again (a good amount for me at least). I feel like I am already making progress, which wouldn’t be surprising considering my starting level. The workout wasn’t bad other than the bench fiasco, but things will work themselves out soon enough.

76

Yesterday:
[ul][li]800 med ball throws
[/li]-45-60 seconds rest after 340 throws, but that was it.

[li]40+ minutes of Hurdle Mobility
[/li]I started to count, but after 150 it was far too tedious, especially with the density I was using.

[li]AIS Stretching
[/li]Felt very good! My body feels like it is slowly loosening up.
[/ul]

I didn’t workout today, but will tomorrow I believe. Lots of crap going on, but all is done now, so I should be fine. I intended to do a pool workout after the hurdle mobility, but apparently I need a membership this year? Got that straightened out and next time I should be good to go for the night pool workouts.

77

Today:
[ul]
[li]Push-ups 4 x 10
[/li][li]Chair Dips 4 x 16
[/li]

[li]Bench 4 x 6
[/li]-185lbs
-195lbs x 3
Not hard

[li]Seated DB Press 4 x 8
[/li]-45’s x 2
-50’s x 2
I should have done these with 50’s then 55’s, but I am using this as more of a check up day per se.

[li]Dips x max - 2 x 3
[/li]-26
-16 ?
-?? I forget
I didn’t write this down as I was in a rush

[li]600 core reps
[/li]I’d say 700-800 total units, depending on how intense we consider bridges and med ball rotations, but again, this was rather moderate with this being an easier day with tomorrow (Sunday) off.[/ul]

78

Today:
[ul]
[li]30 x 50m Mach Drills, Skips, Marches, Etc.
[/li]Just like last time, the foot was sore a bit, breaking up some of the scar tissue I assume. Not bad though and it feels good to be on my feet doing something!

[li]4 x 10 Medball Power Throws
[/li]Used a slightly heavier medball, probably ~15lbs.

[li]3 x 3 seconds PNF On Calves/Hammies
[/li]I don’t think I did this right. I stretch for 3 seconds, then contracted (3 secs), then stretched, then contracted, then stretchedm then contract, and finally went onto the next muscle group.

[li]10 x 30m Build Ups
[/li]Felt great and fast–very relaxed. I didn’t take these hard, but I just felt light on my feet.

[li]Box Jumps 4x10 Standing onto box; 3x10 Walk then jump (not hard steps) onto box–36"
[/li]Felt pretty explosive. Finally got a 36" set-up.

[li]4x10 135lbs Squats As deep as possible
[/li]Easy, tight hip flexors though.

[li]4x5 185lbs Squats as deep as possible
[/li]Pretty easy, but the hip flexors were a tad tight, but not to a point of pain in the back or anything like that.

[li]Walking lunges w/ 40lbs 3 x 20
[/li]Felt a good stretch.

[li]Goodmornings 4x6
[/li]1x6 95lbs
3x6 115lbs

This was menat to be back hypers, but the equipment was being used and I did not have the time to wait. I did the GMs at a comfortable weight and a complete ROM.
[/ul]

Not much time in the weight room, so I took very little rest ~2 minutes for squats, 90 seconds for for lunges, and ~2-3 minutes for the GMs in the weight room. Great workout overall with some stretching to come later tonight.

Kind of ticked because I typed this up 3 times only to have my crappy cable connection time me out and lose the post.

79

we dont care for NA too much down this way, but i’ll make an exception… training log looks good, keep it up. small world

80

haha very. Surprisingly, I met a faculty member from my school on here. Where are you from?

Calves: Sore
Lower Hammys: Sore
Glutes: Sore

The entire posterior chain is pretty sore. Tonus kind of high in the calves (compared to what it has been), but some good LI work today and stretching should lower it significantly.

Talked to another coach from the U of Chicago last night. Said she was going to write yet another rec (the head coach has also written one) to the dean of admissions, so let’s see what happens.